The Fallow and the Faint: An Echo and Narcissus Retelling

A mortal in love with his reflection and the nymph cursed to forever repeat her mistake.

Like all nymphs of Mount Cithaeron, Echo is bright-eyed and beautiful, but storytelling is her greatest gift of all. When she tries to save her sisters from the wrath of Zeus’s jealous wife Hera, things quickly go awry.

Enraged by the deception, she curses Echo to repeat only the last words spoken to her by another. Distraught at losing her ability to speak freely, Echo retreats into the mountain wilds to be alone… until she has a chance encounter with a hunter named Narcissus.

Accustomed to the longing looks and unwanted advances of everyone who lays eyes on him, Narcissus refuses them all. Most think him conceited, but little do they know he harbors a secret, one he has become adept at hiding.

He happens upon a mysterious woman in the woods who ignores his commands to show herself, taunting him by repeating his every word. When Echo finally reveals herself, Narcissus thinks she is mocking him, and he angrily casts her aside.

Feeling pity for her most cherished nymph, Aphrodite comes down from Olympus to help Echo gain Narcissus’s favor. But all does not go according to plan.

The Fallow and the Faint is a retelling of the myth of Echo and Narcissus, a tragic tale of a nymph who fell in love with a mortal cursed to think only of himself.

© 2024 Dragonfire Press (eBook): 9781958354810

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eBook: 15 sierpnia 2024